On 26 July 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to France, Nikolaus Count Szecsen (pictured with his family), sent a coded telegram to the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leopold Count Berchtold. In his telegram, the Ambassador informs Berchtold of French attitudes towards Austria-Hungary following the Serbian response to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum.

Nikolaus Count Szecsen with his family

Count Szecsen to Count Berchtold. Paris, 26 July 1914

Cyphered.

The situation, that according to all Paris newspaper reports, the Serbian government accepted all our demands, and only asked particulars on some points which it also accepts, but that all the same we declared the answer to be unacceptable, has made a very bad impression here, and is interpreted in this way: that we want war at any cost.

I am telling everybody that the official text has not yet been published and that it probably contains reservations which make the concessions illusory.

Objections against possibility of war are still very strong, but public opinion is beginning to get accustomed to the idea.